Director Nicolas Winding Refn delivers a unique, dark vision of Los Angeles and some of its less-than-glamorous inhabitants in “Drive.” With a stellar cast including Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks, the film is an excellent look at an underworld one hopes to never enter.

Gosling stars as a character known as “driver, ” an enigmatic character whose day job as a movie stunt driver is augmented acting as a wheel-man (getaway driver) for robberies. He also works in a garage owned by Cranston who is in business with Albert Brooks and his creepy muscle, Ron Perlman. Carey Mulligan enters the picture as a friendly neighbor, who’s husband is just out of prison.

When things wrong, they really go horribly wrong and the pace, as well as the bloodshed is amplified like the odd euro-disco music that oddly fills the soundtrack. There are moments in this film that look like a European postcard of California, all sunsets and endless highways. Those tranquil moments are then shattered by moments of sudden, unpredictable outburst of violence.

“Drive” is playing at Century 20 El Con Cinema at El Con Mall, 3601 East Broadway.